It’s that time of year again in Switzerland and Europe in general. The cities are quieter than usual and offices can appear as if they were abandoned, but without air conditioning in them, they may as well be when the mercury climbs to 30 degrees. It’s summer and summer means vacation time.

Most employed people in the German speaking countries get 4-5 weeks of paid vacation each year. Inevitably most will take at least 2 of those weeks in the summer and jet off somewhere that is usually even warmer than the place they are leaving. Favourite destinations are: Italy (Italien), Spain (Spanien), Greece (Griechenland) and the South of France (Südfrankreich).

In this post I want to look at different ways of expressing vacation and going on vacation as well as related words, so that you have some expressions to use when talking to your coworkers or people you might meet when visiting a German speaking country on your vacation this summer.

der Urlaub (holiday/vacation)

This word comes from the middle high German “urloup” which in old high German changed to “urloub” and meant what today’s German word Erlaubnis means (permission). It was in fact permission to leave the military for a period of time (leave).

Not everyone can afford to go away on vacation so they might do the following:

Urlaub auf Balkonien machen — A “staycation” whereby the person stays at home and enjoys their vacation on their balcony.

Dieses Jahr mache ich Urlaub auf Balkonien.

Urlaub in Gardenien machen— A “staycation” for those fortunate to have a garden. Instead of enjoying your vacation on the balcony, you do it in the garden.

Markus macht Urlaub in Gardenien.

Some common compound words with Urlaub:

die Ferien (pl) (holiday/vacation)

This word derives from the Latin feriae which is a day on which no work is done, but rather religious ceremonies and festivals are celebrated. For this reason it is more etymologically related to holiday than vacation.

Some of the most common collocations with Ferien are:

Ferien haben — to have holidays

Ferien machen — to take a holiday

in die Ferien fahren — to go on holidays

in die Ferien gehen — to go on holidays

in den Ferien sein — to be on holiday

die Ferien verbringen — to holiday

*Note again here the different uses of in as both accusative and dative preposition with in den Ferien sein and in die Ferien fahren. Review your two-way prepositions here.

Here are some useful examples or expressions:

Ich gehe in die Ferien! (I’m going on holidays!)

Ich habe ab Montag Ferien! (Starting Monday, I’m on holidays!)

Wo verbringst du deine Ferien? (Where are you taking your holidays?)

There are also different kinds of holidays:

Ferientag — holiday (one day)

Ferienwoche — holiday week

Herbstferien – autumn vacation

Osterferien — Easter holidays

Weihnachtsferien — Christmas holidays

Betriebsferien — company holidays

Schulferien — school vacation

Ferien im Wohnwagen — camper/caravan holiday

Ferien auf dem Boot— boating holiday

Ferien auf dem Bauernhof— holiday on the farm (agrotourism)

Strandferien — beach holiday

Some common compound words with Ferien:

While Urlaub and Ferien can often be used interchangably, for holidays associated with religious festivals in German we tend to use Ferien and not Urlaub.

Grammar Note!

I need to add a small grammatical note here. It regards travel and preposition. When we are going to a country or a city that does not have an article associated with it, we use nach z.B. Nächste Woche fahre ich nach Bern, aber AnneMarie fliegt nach Spanien. When the country has an article associated with it z.B. die Schweiz, die Türkei, die USA, der Iranwe use the preposition inz.B. Morgen reise ich wieder in die USA. Wann fahren Sie in die Schweiz? Lastly for islands we use the preposition auf when you are on them, but nach for going to them z.B. Ich fliege wider nach Kuba. Letztes Jahr hatten wir unsure Zeit auf Kuba sehr genossen.

Recap:

nach + countries and cities without articles (to)

in + countries with articles (accusative when in the direction (to); dative when talking about things in the country (in))

auf + islands (when you’re talking about things on the island (in), there are exceptions like England, UK, Ireland etc.)

For when you’re out of the office on vacation:

When many of you leave the office for vacation you et your Outlook or e-mail program to automatically respond to e-mails saying that you are away. “Bin im Urlaub” is not a nice message to have automatically sent to someone trying to contact you. Try this:

Good day,Thank you for your e-mail.I am out of the office until DATE.In my absence Mr./Ms. FIRST NAME LAST NAME will handle my work. If you have any questions he/she can be reached per e-mail at E-MAIL ADDRESS or per telephone under TELEPHONE NUMBER.

Holiday ideas!

If you’re looking to travel in the German-speaking world this year, you might be interested in these sites. Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Liechtenstein, and Südtirol are fabulous vacation destinations:

I find these lesson extremely helpful. However, I need to move on to the next stage and start actually speaking German but lack confidence, i.e don’t want to sound silly. Can you suggest some use listening aid program.